Cobb commissioners table proposals to regulate trash service

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Cobb tables trash proposals

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to table code amendment proposals pertaining to trash service.

But they disagreed on when, or even if, to bring proposals back for board consideration.

By a 4-1 vote, the commissioners approved tabling the amendments until January. Tuesday’s vote came before the first public hearing on code amendments, which will be voted on Sept. 27.

The dissenting vote was from Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb, who supported tabling the trash proposals but thinks doesn’t think they need to be brought back at all.

“I think the public has been loud and clear,” said Birrell, who’s up for re-election in November in a newly drawn District 3 that includes most of East Cobb.

“This should never have been brought to the board,” she said, without talking to the haulers and the public.”

She said she’s received 1,715 e-mails from citizens, with only two in support of a proposal that would have limited trash service to one hauler per commission district.

All five board members have publicly said that they don’t support the single-hauler provision, and held a work session Aug. 31 with private providers to hear their concerns.

There was another meeting last week with the haulers and county officials to continue hammering out solutions to trash service problems that Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said have been lingering for a decade.

“I don’t know that we need an ordinance to address this code at this time.”

Later, she said that the trash proposal “need to be removed completely. If it needs to come back, it can come back.”

Keli Gambrill of North Cobb agreed with Birrell, her fellow Republican.

“These are things that can be solved by the haulers without the county’s interference,” Gambrill said via telephone, attending the meeting remotely.

Citizens in unincorporated Cobb contract with private providers for trash service. But Cupid said the county has a role in resolving service issues some citizens have had with not getting service, or getting inconsistent service.

“This is a public health matter, when there are citizens not getting service,” Cupid said. Until now, “there has not been a prod to the private market to address these issues. There is a role for us to play in this matter.”

Commissioner Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb said that while tabling the amendments “doesn’t necessarily solve the problem” of inconsistent trash service, it’s “encouragement that the right kind of dialogue is happening to address this issue.”

After the vote, speakers at the public hearing  also spoke out against the trash proposals, which included mandatory recycling.

“This amendment isn’t ready for game time,” East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher said, calling it an example of “government overreach.”

She said she found it ironic that county government is attempting to step in to dictate trash service when it “can’t mow the grass” in road medians. “That’s a problem. Limited government is always better.”

East Cobb resident Hill Wright, who started a website to galvanize opposition to the single-hauler proposal, acknowledged that while there are issues in some areas with trash service, “the county has proven that it is not the right entity to make it happen.”

Beyond the initial meetings with haulers, he said, “we need town halls,” and was critical of what he said was an initial attempt to “bypass the haulers and the public.”

One of those haulers, Brian Warren of Custom Disposal Service, thanked commissioners for tabling the code amendments. He said 75 percent of his company’s business is in Cobb, and he’s served on a task force in nearby municipality to help resolve trash issues.

He was responding to a question about how long such a process might take, and he said from previous experience that “within a six-month period we came up with a plan.”

He urged commissioners not to follow the lead of Gwinnett County, which went to a single-hauler format a decade ago, only to continue to have service problems.

“Cobb should be a county that others want to emulate,” he said. “We don’t need to emulate others with failed programs.”

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11 thoughts on “Cobb commissioners table proposals to regulate trash service”

  1. It was moved to January. The reporting that it was tabling leaves out that it is to be brought back in January. But even so, cobb county didn’t’t proposed a single solution that would have solved any problem. American has lost 20% market share in the last few years. But supply chain issues is limiting how fast expansion can take place. The county ty can’t solve that issue either!

    • When the haulers asked cobb County staff for a list on 8-31 & 9-9 cobb county could not provide a single address that doesn’t have service. In a few cases in the past when a situation arose, Bobb Ott called the haulers and found one to provide service. We didn’t need to copy a failed take over of trash by the county with new fees to solve the problem. The county didn’t talk to the haulers since 2019. Yes they should have dropped this on 8-23 as the proposal would not have fixed and problems and would have destroyed small family owned businesses without fixing the problem. The haulers are the only ones that can fix the problem and can do it without tacking on a fee.

  3. Since when should trash be controlled by local government this should never be a situation. I am very happy that this was tabled and should be done away with immediately for good and not be brought back for a vote ever. Thank you.

  4. I am disappointed this was tabled. It was brought up because many East Cobb residents are dissatisfied with their trash and recycling options. Now the trash haulers can continue to cherry pick where they will and will not do business, charge vastly different rates from one home to another, and dump our recycling efforts in with the regular trash. Well done by the vocal minority.

    • That’s called Capitalism, ma’am. And personal responsibility. YOU can ‘cherry-pick’. YOU decide which company and services YOU want to have performed and pay for. The free-enterprise trash companies have the same rights – they choose their business model. The ‘market’ decides. If YOU want ‘special services’, hire them and pay.
      This has been proven to be efficient and satisfactory to the vast majority of ‘Cobbites’. So allow WE the people have the same rights.

    • It was moved to January. The reporting that it was tabling leaves out that it is to be brought back in January. But even so, cobb county didn’t’t proposed a single solution that would have solved any problem. American has lost 20% market share in the last few years. But supply chain issues is limiting how fast expansion can take place. The county ty can’t solve that issue either!

  5. This whole thing was blown up by Mr Wright who’s tactics were called out during the meeting today by commissioner Sheffield. She indicated that the commissioners positions were clear after the first work session yet there was false information spread about the commissioners positions and intentions.

    • Actually thousands of people were concerned about cobb county adopting a failed plan for an additional fee which is written into the plan. On Aug 23 instead of agreeing to tabling it, the chair blocked that request and said she was hopeful they could still adopt the code change on the 27. On sep 13 The chair made a motion to table the proposal until January code changes. In a Statement on Friday released by the chair, she states that the proposal was put together at the request of the commissioners.

      So the statements that some of the board did not support the proposal are not supported by the actions behind the scenes as well as the actions in the meetings. They had a chance to make a clear statement on aug 23 they were not for this plan. Some of the commissioners did but the rest choose not to do so. Instead they choose to keep going.

      The whole problem is that some of the county leadership and staff thought they knew what is better for the community so they bypassed getting input from the community and bypassed getting input from the industry. 99.88% of responses were against this proposal because it was so wrong and would have been very destructive to cobb citizens. The haulers are working to address the concerns the county failed to communicate since 2019. Some commissioners claim they are not for the proposal yet the keep it going.

  6. I can only assume that the chairwoman tabled it because she hopes to bring it back up again. Maybe she hopes that everyone will forget by January and she can sneak it through.

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